This New Orange Era: The Growing Divide

For those of you who feel like you are caught in a Trump avalanche,know that you are. You want desperately to get out, but it seems that every time you start to wriggle your limbs, you precipitate another large chunk of snow dislodging and burying you even deeper. You may want to stop struggling, hold your breath, and pray for hibernation to take over, until spring (and sanity) arrives. Good luck. That won’t happen, but it might make you feel better to know that your feelings are are shared by millions.

Like countless others, I’ve been trying to figure this whole thing out: How did it happen? Why did it happen? Where did we go wrong? Has the world gone mad? If the world hasn’t, have I, personally, gone mad? What is this country I have been living in?

I’ll share some of my thoughts with you. A note to Readers: We are all drowning in Trump news/analysis. Feel free to skip this post and wait for the next one, which will have nothing to do with Trump. I won’t be hurt. I would skip this, if I were you.

First piece of advice: Do NOT wait for Trump’s supporters to see the light. He is exactly the personality they adored during the campaign. The promises that they cared about seem to be materializing. He promised them a wall, and he is serious about that. He promised them a conservative Supreme Court nominee, and he has delivered. He promised to get rid of unsavory illegals, and he is trying, even if a lot of savory ones are getting caught up in the process. He promised to eradicate ISIS. While he hasn’t actually done anything about that, he’s been sucking up to the military big time, and that sends a message that ISIS’ days are numbered. He promised people jobs. He has done virtually nothing about that, but he has signed presidential orders and made big noises about bringing back 19th century technology, and those who had such jobs are overjoyed.

Best of all, he has given his supporters an enemy they can understand: the media, meaning any media that questions either his policies, his capability for the job, or the veracity of his statements. The bottom line is, he has done enough to keep the groupies in line.

“But,” some of you are asking, “What about Russia!” Trump supporters aren’t concerned. Please understand that for many Trump supporters, Russia is merely an abstract concept. Supporters feed on a hatred/fear toward radical Islamic terror, with an emphasis on Muslim. Russians look too much like them. They don’t elicit the same fear/loathing as Muslims do.

“Wait!” you yell, “What about Bannon and Miller and Conway and the other goons who work for him?! They are SCARY DUDES!” Trump supporters aren’t concerned. They don’t believe that their man is second to anyone or defers to anyone. He is the Dude in Charge. He calls the shots. He makes all the decisions. Bannon, Miller, Conway and all the rest of them serve him.

“He lies! He lies!” you are screaming apoplectically. No, actually Trump’s supporters don’t know that. Their news sources don’t tell them that Trump lies. Trump supporters see the world through a lense of Fox, Limbaugh and his ilk, and websites such as Breitbart, Drudge Report, WSJ Opinion Journal, The Blaze. Anti-Trump forces listen to CNN/MSNBC, NPR, and websites such as Vox, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Politico, Slate. So, while we identify Hillary as a potentially outstanding president who won the popular vote by almost three million and lost the election due to an antiquated electoral college system, they still see her as demon spawn who, had she won, would have ended the free world as we know it. Thankfully, their hero prevailed to save the day and their butts.

The divide is huge and widening. It isn’t due to what is important to people. We all want secure borders. We all want economic and national security. We all want our children’s lives to be better than ours were. The divide is caused almost entirely by the news sources we trust. News sources used to be pretty much neutral. Now, there are fewer and fewer neutral sources. And, as time goes on, the sources that exist are becoming even more polarized. And more and more of what used to be neutral in our lives is becoming politicized. Neutral political space, with the the possibility of dialogue and compromise, is becoming an endangered species.

If it sounds like I’m throwing in the political towel, I’m not. I’m cheering for the journalists ( and some members of Congress) who are spending an enormous amount of time and energy to uncover the truth about Trump/Russia ties, as well as Trump’s financial entanglements that are becoming even more of a conflict as time goes by.

I’m cheering for the handful of GOP Congressmen who are principled enough (and courageous enough) to raise questions and demand answers. I’m cheering for the ordinary people all over the country who have shown up at town halls and have strongly voiced their concerns to their elected representatives. I’m cheering for every person who makes a phone call, writes a letter, holds a placard.

I am especially cheering for that tiny group of people who are willing to check with news sources other than the ones they usually listen to or read. They won’t change their opinions. Opinions are almost impossible to change. But maybe they will have a slightly better understanding of who those people are who stand on the other side of the divide.

I was going to take your advice and skip this one, but as seems to be case today, any news about Trump grabs my attention. I did a one week Fox News diet. I thought going into it that I would be violently nauseous every day, but I wasn’t. It was clear that Fox reports a side of every story that is usually different in content and definitely tone from my regular dose of CNN and certainly MSNBC. I didn’t get as ill as I thought I would. It just made it really clear that our individual worldview stems in a great part from the conversations with which we surround ourselves. Whether that be media, friends or family. We are constantly reinforcing what we believe this way. And since the media has become so polarized, it isn’t surprising in the least that so has our population.

I do have one thing to thank this administration for…I know most of us would not have become as mobilized around our social issues as we’ve become, nor would we be learning as much or paying as much attention to the cabinet picks or what is happening in DC if Hillary were President. And in a way that is a very, very important thing. We had become complacent and for those who marched in the 60’s and made SO much progress, we thought our job was done. This presidency has reminded us that it is never done and it has inadvertently called on all of us to exercise our obligation to be responsible citizens and that is a really good thing!

Ellyn, thanks so much for these comments. I believe it takes great courage to listen to the other side, if only to know what others believe. I try, sometimes, to listen to Rush, but I just end up screaming at the radio. I do read conservative online pieces occasionally, and that is always a huge eye-opener. I prefer well thought out opinions, not screaming-in-my face opinions. But, unfortunately, a lot of this is in-your-face.

Yes, this administration has woken people up in several ways. We have been coasting, believing that all of the recent strides in liberal issues meant that the country has become more liberal. But we are the same country as we have always been, covering a wide range of beliefs. We ignored all those who were horrified at decisions that we applauded. Trump has risen from that horror.

Thanks, LBL, for organizing your thoughts and presenting them so clearly. You’ve captured the essence of what we’re facing today. I’m cheering for you and others like you who synthesize, summarize, and share without being bombastic or rude, and without further deepening the divide.

So important. And who would have thought that, in this day and age, we would have to do that? Just in the post-war years, science has improved people’s lives in ways that were inconceivable in all the thousands of years before. Yet the result, for many, is to mistrust even the most basic scientific concepts. It’s chilling.

Did not vote for the Donald or the Hillary. I went Libertarian because I found too much wrong with both of them. You asked how this happened. I have read several articles on how it happened. Maureen Dowd’s column on the basket of deplorables back in November was a start (her moderate GOP brother Kevin mentions a lot of things the Dems ignored, like the losses of congressional and state legislative seats, not to mention governorships over the past eight years). Another one was a book review I saw in last Friday’s WSJ which details the down fall of Lancaster, OH, which was once a prosperous company (Anchor Hocking) and industrial town.
So many out in the hinterlands feel DC simply does not care about them. I lived in the DC area for 28 years, and moved to Baton Rouge, LA (where we help my lawyer daughter and son in law with our grandsons) four years ago. It has been a huge eye opener for us. People here simply do not trust the feds at all, especially after the FEMA fiascos of Katrina and last year’s great flood in this state. Much of the rest of the country feels the same way, especially in flyover states. They are tired of being ignored, looked down upon, seeing their health premiums double, and their kids having trouble finding jobs. Their votes for Trump were the final way of sticking it to the established elites in the national government and media institutions.

Thanks for these comments, Bonnie. I’ve done a lot of reading about this, including “Hillbilly Elegy” by JD Vance. Liberals have never understood the culture of the industrial north, let alone the south and parts of the midwest. Mistrust of government runs deep, much of it for valid reasons. Dems, especially liberal Dems, assumed that everyone was happily onboard with all of the liberal advances we have made in the last decades. We ignored the fact that, while we celebrated, these people were losing jobs and didn’t care about the issues that were so important to us. The divide in this country reminds me of the pre-Civil War years, in which two disparate economies (industrial vs agrarian) were on a collision course. Trump may have been swept into office for recognizing these issues, but, so far, hasn’t given any indication of dealing with them. Putting people back in the coal mines and bringing some industry back will be a temporary band aid, at a high cost for all of us. The problem runs much deeper.

My understanding is that the only people who get any face time with POTUS now are the folks who have the $200,000 to join Mar-a-Lago. I don’t have that kind of disposable income or interest in being in their company.

Excellent point, LBL. The divide between Trump’s lovers and haters (is there an in-between?) seems to grow wider every day, but I don’t blame the media. Our sentiments generate from our day-to-day lives and the changes in government we think will make a difference. Those who support him believe that traditional politics undermined their quality of life. Those who oppose him fear the qualify of life he will take away. We choose the news sources that reinforce these beliefs. But you’re right, we should respect each other’s viewpoints. Otherwise, this divisiveness will be our undoing. Our energy is best spent by influencing the changes we want to see through local government, which hopefully will impact Congressional decisions.

I totally agree. I don’t blame the media so much, but I do believe that people will limit themselves to what supports their beliefs. We read now, not to broaden our views, but to reinforce them. And fringe media gives the veneer of legitimacy to what shouldn’t be legitimized. My son told me yesterday that more and more people are becoming believers of the flat earth theory. We often seem to be marching backward. I’m a believer that local government is really important now. And some states will assume more influence in standing up to the administration.

Well said. The clock cannot be turned back, the old blue collar jobs are lost; new jobs should be focusing on replacing the fossil fuel industry, to save not just the US, but the world. A global perspective is needed here. Trump is not unique. Look beyond your boundaries and join forces with likewise inside and outside your country, would be my suggestion.
Good book to read, movie to watch: This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis.

It’s too bad that Trump believers cannot evaluate what he says: a moron cannot determine when their head moron is lying and is just spouting words of wishful thinking that can never be reality. We have seen that before, about 77 years ago in Europe.
Keep up the good work!
Johanna

Thanks, Johanna. Good thoughts. Dems failed to note that the economy of the industrial north was no longer viable. We took jobs away but gave these people no alternatives. Trump supporters are driven solely by fear: fear of losing jobs, fear of terrorism. Trump threw them a seeming lifeline: I will make your jobs come back. I will close the borders and keep you safe. Both promises are myths.

Social science does back up some of those points. A recent article in the New Yorker discussed why it is hard to change a persons mind when they are presented with evidence that is proven false. Some polls show that the problem was in getting the democratic base out and having their votes count as being part of the reason for low turnout.

I read an article recently, about research like that. I still remember how, years ago, the Pope actually said that there was no such thing as hell. I don’t think it changed one person’s belief that hell existed. The democratic loss was like a perfect storm of events, and low turnout was one. People assumed that Hillary didn’t “need” their votes because she was so far ahead.

The only positive outcome of the catastrophe( and, yes, those who voted third party are as responsible as Trump enthusiasts) is that I’m free to stop pretending that I give a good goddamn about hillbillies.
You actually bestirred yourself, got off your keester and voted for him; enjoy your even more miserable lives.

I don’t blame the media so much, but I do believe that people will limit themselves to what supports their beliefs. We ignored the fact that, while we celebrated, these people were losing jobs and didn’t care about the issues that were so important to us.

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